Abstract:

Languages reflect social, political, cultural and other changes in a society in the context of globalization. As argued by Cook (2010) apart from being a useful skill in itself, translation in a globalized world is all around us. Translation assignments in classes for students majoring in translation studies help them to relate new knowledge to existing knowledge, promotes noticing and language awareness, and focuses on the differences and similarities between languages and cultures. The rendering of idiomatic expressions is considered one of the most problematic aspects of translation which has been widely discussed by various scholars (Hockett (1958); Strässler (1982); Baker (1992); Moon (1998)). The process of translating idioms and fixed expressions from one language into another is a fine work which obliges a translator to have a good knowledge of both languages and cultures being shared or transferred. Students majoring in translation studies analyzed the translation of idioms in subtitles of the films in the genres of drama, war and history.

The analysis of the translation of idioms in subtitles shows that translating idioms is a challenging task for the translator and it evokes a lot of difficulties. Idioms express the uniqueness of the language and should be considered very carefully, since the figurative expressions not only enrich the language, they are also meant to make a positive effect on the viewer. The results of this research show that there is still a lot to be learned for the translators in order to avoid the mistakes. The research also reveals a very interesting fact that idioms in the chosen genres of drama, war and history are not common at all.

Keywords:

Language learning, translation, idioms, audiovisual translation.